Histori historians talk about artifacts featured in their joint publication, the civil war in 50 objects. In this program they discuss items related to the end of the war and president Abraham Lincolns assassination. This conversation took place online, and the New York Historical society provided the video. Good evening and welcome to the eighth and final episode of the history hour. Tonights topic is saving the union and ending the civil war at the battlefield and the ballot box. As always i want to remind you that tonights program which is being recorded will last approximately 45 minutes. This includes 15 minutes for questions and answers. Please submit your questions via the q a function on your zoom screen at any time during the talk. We will respond to as many as possible during the final part of the program. And now, saving the union and ending the civil war. So our series has argued that an aggregate objects and documents have the singular power to convey a narrative in your case the story of the civil war. Now, harold, looking back on the book that inspired the series, the civil war in 50 objects, are there any objects or documents we had in new yorks plethora collection that you wish we had been able to include . Oh, from the book . I would say we covered the waterfront pretty well in terms of diversifying the choices. I guess a couple of regrets for time reasons was the hand written diary of George Templeton strong, perhaps one of the great civil war diaries. Excep its written in such tiny hand tiny, tiny hand. And the relics i know you feel the same way from the 1864 metropolitan fair, the Biggest Charity fair of the civil war era and the Historical Society has the records, the minutes, the photographs. But again well do it in the next eight episodes. It is a bittersweet pleasure to be doing our final episode, and we have three objects that well be looking at this evening. The projection of the november 1864 election, the terms of surrender and beliefs from Abraham Lincolns year. Long before computerize recordkeeping and political track polling lincoln seemed uncannily able to comprehend, retain and analyze even the most fragmented voting trends. You write a book lincoln had been a serious student ever since his days of being a poll watcher in illinois. So tell me were his predictions political or statistical or were they just instinctive . All of the above. He was by all accounts of people who knew him a remarkable and very localized analyst of votes. He used to make the rounds in the illinois legal circuit in the 1850s. And theyd say, wow, the republican part of the vote increased by 2 . If this continues by 1858 well be able to elect a senator, and maybe with a bit more president ial electors. He had it in his head from precinct to precinct, and why . Because he lived and died by those results. And he knew about turn out and all of the above. What exactly does this reflect . So dont worry about your focus. This is very faded document. It was not meant to be kept. Those of us old enough, not valerie, of course, to remember the 2000 election when tim ruster wrote a series of electorate result estimates now in the smithsonian, this is lincoln doodling 1864 before election day on how on earth hes going to get to 116, which is the magic number for 1864, how many electoral votes he needed. He knew hed been in trouble. Hes wondering if hes made enough of a recovery since sherman took atlanta a month earlier, and hes pretty conservative here about the tabulation. If you look on the right he gives himself just one more bare minimum of where he thinks things stand. And if you look at the left hes given new york, pennsylvania and his home state of illinois to the democrats. Hes worried. In this case its not such a great vote count. Well, he didnt campaign for himself during the 1860 president ial race and was determined to do the same in 1864. We have a Campaign Flag image from our collection. So how was he feeling about his chances in august 1864 . In august it was political suicide time. Everything was going wrong. The war was going terribly. New york editor harris greenly had led an unauthorized Peace Mission to try to give away emancipation in return for peace. The editor of the the New York Times who happened to be lincolns Campaign Manager told him he couldnt win. There was no way he could win. He might as well seek peace on his own terms with Jefferson Davis. Lincoln was so upset that he wrote a memorandum pledging his administration to cooperate with the Incoming Democratic administration in order to save the union between election day and Inauguration Day. Its called the blind memorandum because lincoln asked his cabinet to sign it without reading it. In fact, he pasted it together. I just think he was acting irrationally at this point. He also took a meeting with Frederick Douglas at the white house and made an arrangement to try to create an army of africanamerican volunteers to head into the confederacy and alert as many enslaved people as possible under the terms of the emancipation proclamation they could walk off their imprisonment and leave. Douglas did a huge memo on it, but it never had to be done of course because lincoln won. By the way, he refuses to go back to reunion for Campaign Events which must have had a nostalgic tug. Can i say one thing about this flag . Sure. Its hard to see but i believe this was an 1860 flag for lincoln and hamlin, but some brilliant seamstress sewed the Andrew Johnson. Ive never seen a relic like this. And coming up next we do have some nasty cartoon from this very period, but we do see that the momentum of the war shifted. Describe this a little bit and what exactly you meant . In lou of campaigning political clubs had events as they still do, and this was an alleged event at lincoln headquarters in new york city on the anniversary of the emancipation prom luimation where it was alleged africanamericans and whites danced together, heaven forbid. Those with good eyes can see some white faces peeking in horror in the skoi light above in this clandestine dance. This was part of a series of charges lincoln had a radical intent on introducing integration should he be elected. And without campaigning he had difficulty answering this in new york where these charges hurt him. I will say one thing about campaigning. He didnt campaign. One thing he did do and these things got printed in the papers. He stood at the white house window, he greeted regiments as they demobilized and wept home, and all the remarks were published in the press, and he said things like im living proof that any one of your children can come and live in this big white house the way my son has. These brilliant little remarks did count a little bit for campaign speeches, but this kind of thing hurt him in new york for sure. Sure. But even so the momentum of the war was shifting and news of the destruction how did lincoln capitalize on these events politically . I would say because they were visualized in emages, because they were wildly reported in the press. He just rode on the crest of renewed enthusiasm. And i suppose there was kind of a latent union sentiment there, but people were exhausted from the casualties and the lack of victories, and these events really cheered people including as you say a battle that took place in harbor thousands of miles away that really merely symbolic but it ended the life of a confederate pirate ship that had run rough shot over Union Merchant ships for years. It was a very big symbolic victory and a morale booster. Lincoln rode the crest of that wave all the way to election day. So tell us about this hand written ledger. This is our first object of the program. We see a detail here. We can see a little bit more closeup. Hes got votes for him. The last two on the list, kentucky his birthplace state and illinois his home state. That must have been a painful thing to concede to his opponents. And of course by this time i think he should have known better. He was rather negative. Also he had seen to the admission of nevada into the union. I wonder what the reaction the public would be today. He got one more state admitted that would vote republican, and it did. So this particular object is interesting. He say doodling while he was visiting the secretary of war, edwa edward stantons office. In this office. And he left this piece of paper behind but a clerk picked it up, and the next slide shows a detail of an affidavit the clerk wrote out explaining he picked it up and brought it back to lincoln. You can see the initials on the bottom. Yeah, he saved it. And why was lincoln in the war secretarys office . Because every evening he would go there and watch the telegraph wires for news of military movements and battles and casualties and i often wonder why the white house did not equip itself with its own tell graph, but i think he enjoyed it. And obviously the election is paramount on his mind. Otherwise hell lose his role as commander in chief. And it was still a very perilous military situation with a month to go in the election. Lets move forward and go to our next object this evening, and this is the terms of surrender september 9, 1865. The civil war surrender at the courthouse in virginia on september 9, 1865. We can move to the next image which shows the two men, grant and lee, and theres quite a contrast between the two. The unkempt grant and the rather noble looking lee. So how were their physical differences used to make a symbolic point what was going on at the surrender . This was definitely the triumph of the common man over dynastic loyalty. He was a drunk but he was married into George Washingtons or at least Martha Washingtons family. He was kind of american royalty, certainly confederate royalty, and he also looked the part. Before his white hair and perioded state he was considered the handsomest man in the United States army. He was still a terrific looking guy as he neared age 60. And in this photograph interestingly taken on the back porch of his richmond home a few days after his surrender he stripped all the military insignia from his uniform. He did not want to project a defiant image. So its a little less than the resplendency he had at apomatics. Grant arrived in a muddy mud slatered uniform in these muddy boots you see here, so they did present a tremendous contrast. Its interesting the day before the surrender, the dignified lee was apparently savage pacing back and forth the documents tell us like a caged lion and saying hed rather die a thousand deaths than surrender. And yet the scene is quite different the next day. We have that image thats memorialized in engravings of the time. In any case grants words rose above the optics of these physical contrasts which is described, and in a preliminary message grant advised lee in very freight forward prose much like grant himself in the way he looked by laying down arms they might save thousands of human lives and hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed. And his best line is and prevent needless effusion of blood needless further effusion of blood. And i think thats what convinced the caged lion lee by the way his army was starving. It had been decimated by illness and desertion. He really had no choice, and the fact he found it such a difficult decision is a little difficult to understand. He did not want to give up the cause, of course, or his enslaved people. But he also had this kind of nobility as a chief and he didnt believe he had been beaten by a superior tactician in grant. Well, did lincoln give grant any particularly instructions what to say and do . According to grants memoirs and shermans when they had their war conference lincoln told them to let him up easy, and that was his definition. And he made jokes about hoping that Jefferson Davis would escape unbeknownst to him and i think he hoped although he didnt say specifically to grant generous enough terms would be offered so there was not either acrimony or guerilla resistance to the war. That if grant gave up then the armies in the west would simply collapse and it would all be over quickly. So set the scene for us at willmer mcclains brick house home in virginia on april 9, 1865. So how did the meeting between the men begin and who was there . Well, grant and his staff were there. And you see them assembled there in this fanciful image, no less fanciful than the one we just saw but a little more crowded as you see. This is grants general cadre of officers. And lee arrived, grant arrived and grant tried very hard to make small talk. He said to lee you may remember me from the mexican war, and lee looked at him and said i have no recollection basically. He really dissed him. And grant, you know, typically didnt care. He realized lee was a more important figure in the army at that point, although grant was an important quartermaster and was supplying lees army. And then lee sort of interrupted the small talk and said i think we should get down to business. So grant took up this contraption. This is interesting and this is why we have the relic we do. It was called a manifold and it was sort of an early version of carbon paper except its got sheets of wax paper and paper between them. We think lee bought it at a washington stationary store when he arrived in washington. And he said he began writing out the terms, and he showed the original to lee and lee made a few suggestions and then grant handed over the writing of the final to a clerk. You see a clerk sitting at the table here at right. And when it was all over lee stood up and left and shook hands with the officers. Well get to big story at the end. But when it was over he gave one of the wax paper impressions to the third man from the right, colonel elie. So he took over the tack of writing on this manifold thing. So who was eli parker . Im glad you asked because hes a nativeamerican whos on the senior staff which was unusual. He was a seneca indian. He was known as the wolf to his tribe, and he had advanced in grants inner circle to the point that he was a trusted advisor. Trusted enough not only to witness this scene but to receive as a souvenir copy, a souvenir one of the copies of the actual terms of surrender. Everything about the surrender was priceless. We talked briefly last week and i sort of pushed off the answer about souvenirs. Look at the furniture in this room. Every last piece of furniture was taken from grants office as a souvenir. Willmer mcclain, by the way he had home in bull run and so the first battle of the war his whole house was shot up, and so he said im moving, im getting the heck out of here. Lets move to some Peaceful Place like the board house. So as tim burns great script once said the war began on his doorstep and ended in his parlor. He copyrighted this print in a desperate effort to make some money so he could buy some furniture. I sort of feel bad for it guy, you know, even though he was a confederate. After it was over lee stood up and greeted all of general grants staff, shook each ha hand lets look at we have some more images of these people. And this is the copy in grants handwriting on the manifold. Written by eli parker this is written by grant, yeah. And move to the next slide also where we can see the gentlemen after its all over. Well, its really fought. Its a fanciful the scene was so important that no one could believe it took place in a nondescript parlor so some artists learning that lee had done his storming and pacing under an apple tree placed the whole thing in an Apple Orchard with all the vast array of armies standing behind him. So this is a made up print but you see lee with his sword anyway. Yes. So we move back to grants secretary parker who took over the task from one of lees men of writing out the terms. And tell us a bit more parkers sort of odyssey as a member of grants staff . We have an image of that staff coming up next. He rose and parkers to the left here. He rose in the inner circle. He did face a lot of issues and prejudice. He was a lawyer. He was quite skilled, and yet grant liked him. He took a real shine to him. He did, and he repaid him by being instrumental in the fundraising and the dedication of grants tomb when his old general died. This is a great shot of the inner circle. The next slide shows a closeup of eli parker that gives a sense of his nobility and his presence. Absolutely. So lee mounts his horse traveller dont mount his horse yet. He has to do the handshakes. He shakes hands all around inside the parlor. By the way, lincolns son is on the porch. Hes on the staff but not senior enough to be an eyewitness. Anyway, he shakes hands all around, comes to eli parker, he takes his hand and then he sort of pulls back a little bit looking into his face and wondering i hope i havent shaken the hand of a man of color, that would be too much. And he realizes that parker is a nativeamerican and he says, ah, i see theres at least one real american here. And that was a dig, of course, and parker looked him straight in the eye and said, general, today were all americans. Quite a moment. Such an elegant moment indeed. And so were onto our final object this evening. And its this one, the so less than a week after president lincoln is assassinated and his status excels to secular saint. How so . As a wellmeaning, kindhearted ignorant old codger had won for himself in the hearts of his people, what a place he will fill in history. And, you know, i think it was the sudden change in emotion from elation to grief a week after the fireworks and church going had started he died on good friday im sorry, he was shot on good friday which has all sorts of religious connotations. That sunday Easter Services were devoted to what they call the black easter. Lilies were painted black in churches as crepe begins to adorn public buildings and religious buildings. Its also the jewish holiday of passover. In and the jewish prayer of the dead is recited for lincoln, by many accounts the first time a nonjew had been awarded with a prayer for the dead in a synagogue. Hes immediately seen as a second jesus for dying for the nations sins and a second moses whos led people to the promise land without quite making it there himself. And i think that, of course, helped this profound sense of mass mourning as did the series of funerals that took place retracing his inaugural route from washington all it way back to springfield, il